Marketing of Lidl business in UK : Assignment

INTRODUCTION TO
MARKETING

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
Market research on grocery market of UK by different tools..........................................................3
Task 2............................................................................................................................................12
Segments which affects the growth of Lidl................................................................................12
TASK 3 .........................................................................................................................................15
Marketing mix model and relevant strategies ...........................................................................15
RECOMMENDATIONS...............................................................................................................19
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................20

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is a management process through which company distributes their goods and
services to target customers and market. It is related to various activities, set of institutions and
process for creating, communicating, delivering and exchanging offerings that serve value to
customer, clients, stake holders, etc. It helps to satisfy needs and requirements of customers
(Wilson, 2012). It is essential for marketing department to manage their marketing strategies
effectively so that they can reach to their customers as well as fulfill their demands on time. By
using appropriate distribution channel, company can provide their goods and service to their
customers on time. Marketers can also apply different marketing concept and marketing mix to
make their strategies more productive. Lidl is leading discounted supermarket chain based in
German. Company was founded in 1930 with its headquarters in Neckarsulm, Germany. It has
been operating in more than 10,000 stores especially across Europe and USA. This company is
biggest competitor of Aldi. This assignment will mainly focus on expanding Lidl business in UK
retail market to compete their rival teams. They provide low cost and affordable goods to their
customers. This is the reason Lidl has a strong reputation in market with such a large number of
loyal and satisfied customers. Appropriate research on retail industries is done to provide critical
information about rivals to Lidl. Models like PESTEL, SWOT, Ansoff Matrix, Boston
Consulting Group Matrix, etc are used under this project to analyze opportunities, threat,
weakness, strengths, political, economical, social, and legal and other information factors that
can influence Lidl business and growth. Research on UK population has been given which can
provide maximum benefit to Lidl Company and encourages their sales and profits. Different
marketing model and marketing mix are used to provide relevant approaches to marketing
strategies are covered under this assignment.
TASK 1
Market research on grocery market of UK by different tools
Following are some tools which are used to identify growth opportunities of Lidl.

SWOT ANALYSIS: It is a strategic tool which is used to identify internal factors such
as strengths and weakness of company as well as external factors like opportunities and threats.
These factors help company to find out core strengths of company to deal with other competitors
in market and stay ahead of their rivals whereas what are the weak areas which company should
pay attention to improve those areas, so that they can come up in effective manner (Tomczak,
Reinecke and Kuss, 2018). What are the different opportunities which a firm can get and some
threats while competing in market? This helps in better comparison of internal and external
factors with business objectives and goals and gives precise idea about favorable and
unfavorable situations. Before formulating any strategy in relation to business expansion,
growth, new product launch, etc, managers use SWOT Analysis to find out the chances of profit
and loss to company.
Retail market of United Kingdom is a very large platform where numerous competitors
are present and this main strategy is to attract as many customers towards their products and
service as possible. Retail companies are using SWOT analysis to identify better opportunities
and threats of their company form other competitors. It is really a tough task to manage
everything and achieve success. With the help of this analytical tool, various strengths,
weaknesses, threats and opportunities of retail market of UK can be identified who can influence
sales and marketing of Lidl. Following is the SWOT analysis:
STRENGTH (Internal factor of organization)
It is an internal factor which is very crucial for Lidl to identify. As it is one of the leading
supermarkets, they have to continuously upgrade their strengths areas to retain their position. To
expand their business in markets of United Kingdom, they have to make whole lot of planning to
make the expansion successful (McDaniel and Gates, 2013). As Lidl has a strong reputation in
market, it can be easy to start their new business in UK. They have to focus on target customers
and market areas where they can get maximum profits and sales. This company has strong online
presence and is available online. This is a greater strength of Lidl to enhance their market online
as maximum number of people buy products online and digital marketing has a great scope in
present as well as in future.
WEAKNESS (Internal factor of organization)

If Lidl wants to achieve maximum growth in retail market, then they have to focus on
weak areas also because these factors can prevent company to achieve desired success. Managers
and superiors should pay attention to their weakness and try to improve it as soon as possible. If
they are proficient and talented in their functioning then they can their followers in effective
manner. Weakness of Lidl Company is that they are relatively small as compared to other brands
like Aldi, TESCO, etc. They have not expanded their business globally and are limited to United
Kingdom and USA. They should try to open up their stores globally so that they can give tough
competition to other rivals companies. As they have large number of store in UK but they lack
sufficient employee workforce to attend customers and answer their problems at the stores. This
decreases customer satisfaction and tend to prefer other rival companies for better assistance.
Above were some weaknesses, which the company needs to focus to achieve desired success.
OPPORTUNITIES (External factor of organization)
It is necessary for companies to overcome all their weaknesses to become a successful
leader. As retail sector is ever growing market, so company has great opportunities to expand
their business. They can shift their business to countries which have growing economies.
Managers can formulate effective market strategies to grow their business and acquire large
market share in retail market.
As they have strong hold on online marketing, they make it more effective and customer
friendly by doing some modification and making unique products available in their website.
With the help of Search Engine Optimization, they can register their websites with famous
search engines (Smith, 2012). This will customers to reach the company within a shit time
period. Organization can focus on great opportunities lying in front of them and start their
actions in that direction of getting success.
THREAT (External factor of organization)
There are challenges which company has to face on daily basis. Lidl has a growing
supermarket chain and many competitors are already present in the market which have well
established business and have a large market share. This can impact on growth of the company.
Many changes can occur in government rules and regulation, policies, guidelines related to retail
industry. If any global brands expand their company international, then it might pose threat to

Lidl and this will become more difficult to expand their business. Manager can identify what
factors can be dangerous for them and will prevent them from growing their business. In that
case they need to analyze all those factors and formulate best strategies to encounter all their
threats.
Retail sector involves much threat and is unpredictable. Even a single change in shopping
habit of customer can cause major threats to retailers. It is necessary to keep company updated
with regular changes in market and modify their plans according to that.
Above was the SWOT Analysis which represents strength and weakness of company and
some opportunities and threats which firm has in the market place (Gibbs and Knapp, 2012).
Below is another tool to analyze external environment and its influence on Lidl enterprise.
PESTEL Analysis
This analysis of retail industry provides company with relevant information about factor
which can influence the growth and success of industry.
Political factor: It mainly includes laws and regulation of country which affect revenues
and profitability. Retail industry is ever growing sector and have been concerned with
employment laws which are set by government. Political stability is necessary for business as
their disruption can lead to supply chain and sales problem. Over some years, organizations
which are dealing in UK retail industry have to face policies and regulation. It has been noticed
that, companies which have strong hold in market, tend to dominant and exploit employees due
to larger market share (Dávila, 2012). The government has then responded back by
implementing some laws against employee’s safety and competitiveness of industry. Some
political factors which greatly influence retail industries are as follows:
 Tax policies.
 Government regulations and policies.
 Corruption level.
 Government stability and instability.